1990 Nissan Silvia 1.8 non-turbo from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

Faults:

General Comments:

Have only had the car a couple of months, so I'd be surprised if anything had gone wrong.

Previously, I had an '85 Alfa Sprint, which was a much more involving drive. Though the Silvia is faster, quieter, far better equipped.

Handling is OK, though car seems very tail-happy in the wet. It does have only the steel wheels on it, and the rubber's fairly average - so maybe with a better wheel/tyre combo things would improve. After the Alfa, I find the steering vague (but the Alfa was VERY good in this department - the only car I've driven where I could actually feel the tyres on the road through the wheel - you don't get that in the Silvia at all. But then, the lightness of the steering is great for parking.)

Performance is pretty good, but you have to rev it very hard to make it get up and go. And I find the throttle response poor; you floor it and wait a couple of seconds for the revs to build and the transmission to kick down, and then it takes off. It doesn't make for a car that feels very controllable. A couple of seconds delay in response to the throttle may not seem like much, but it can be annoying, and in some cases a bit dangerous if you need instantaneous accelaration. It can also be a bit dangerous because situations on the road can change very quickly - so you may have the throttle floored, and nothing's happening, all of a sudden the situation changes and you don't want to accelerate hard, and then the car takes off.

Maybe I just need to learn the transmission better, and experiment with the Hold setting (I keep it on the Power setting most of the time). I must say, I expect the manual would be a much better drive, because you have complete control over what gear you're in - and I just don't really feel in control of the car with this transmission. Another thing: the change up to second is always really jerky - even with very gentle throttle pressure (but, I don't know, maybe the transmission just needs a service).

Overall, the car is very comfortable and great value for money, given that it's really a luxury performance car, that looks quite nice. It also has the bonuses that it's relatively cheap to maintain, reliable and seemingly very durable (unlike many other cars that are at least a mildly interesting drive).